Dark Souls Remastered REVIEW: New PS4, Xbox release is still a gaming great seven years on

Back in 2011 Dark Souls was released to critical acclaim and, building on the work of its spiritual predecessor Demon Souls, pushed gothic action and gruelling difficulty into the mainstream.

Seven years and three Soulsborne games (as the series has affectionately come to be known) later, Dark Souls has finally received a remastered edition, a HD, fully-remastered update of the title that started it all has finally arrived.

Dark Souls’ story unravels in Lordran where a dark history of fire and destruction has shaped the world. From these ancient fires four Lord Souls rose to power leaving little more than ruins in their wake.

This decaying kingdom is the unforgiving setting for our playable character as they travel though desolate lands to extinguish the flames of the Lord Souls.

Before bringing an end to the Lord Souls’ tyranny, however, players can expect forty to fifty hours of intense gameplay, coloured by challenging bosses, hidden treasures and an army of twisted aberrations.

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1 / 6

In Dark Souls Remastered everything can and will, try to kill you. It doesn’t even matter if you’ve played a Soulsborne game before, you will still die a lot.

Even the first few enemies who roam the Firelink Shrine and Undead Burg will take away half of your health with a single hit.

Luckily, death animations are varied but, frankly, you can look forward to seeing them all multiple times.

Ultimately, however, deaths in the game aim to teach as well as punish. Multiple deaths may anger players and cause seemingly endless frustration, but, subtly, they tell a player how to better approach a situation.

The difficulty may be high but that means that defeating even the weakest enemies in the game rewards you with a sense of great triumph.

Dark Souls doesn’t hold the player’s hand but subtle environmental cues do hint at where you might want to head to next.

In fact, it’s not just the directional aspect of the game which is left ambiguous, almost everything in Dark Souls Remastered is left to the player’s imagination.

This allows everyone to take a different meaning from the sparse narrative and the broody setting around them.

Talking of the setting, the map does not include safe zones in the traditional sense. Instead, scattered throughout the world are exposed bonfires which act as save points.

Here, you can recover your lost health and, using the souls of those you have killed, increase individual stats to ease your progress though the game. Arrival at each bonfire poses the question of your next move.

In rushing forwards you might hope to reach the next bonfire, blasting past strong enemies as you desperately attempt to find your next save point. Or you can backtrack through your current area in more depth, honing your skills against enemies you know you can beat.

Although a rinse and repeat method may seem tedious, a lot of practice will be required to beat this game.

Combat itself is diverse and a wide range of swords, daggers, axes and magical abilities means that there are plenty of ways to tackle the enemies in Dark Souls.

Both long-range and close combat weapons can be found or forged, and blacksmiths allow the player to reinforce their weapons and repair any damage gained as you slash your way through mobs and mutations.

However, when it comes to bosses, most of these monstrosities loom above the player meaning that it’s impossible to adequately damage them without getting up close and personal.

Although close-combat betters your chances of inflicting critical damage on a boss you also put yourself in tremendous danger by being in such close proximity to something so much larger than you.

Dark Souls is all about choosing your moment to attack carefully and then going all in, because as we all know Dark Soul is unforgiving and will not hesitate to punish players who make one small mistake.

“The remaster improves on nearly every aspect of the original”

Hugely improved 4K graphics in the remastered edition make Dark Souls even more immersive than it was back in 2011.

Lordran was never initially designed to be a thing of beauty, but new environmental touches; water glistening on the walls of caves, rough shapes sketched on stonework and beautiful lighting mean that Lordran has never looked better.

The developers have truly mastered making the world visually appealing even though the content is often bleak, depressing and downright unwelcoming.

It’s not just the graphics which have been sharpened though. On the PS4 Dark Souls Remastered now runs at 1080p resolution with 60fps, performing so smoothly that gameplay almost flows uninterrupted into cutscenes.

There are now additional bonfires, ones in places where they were desperately needed in the original game, and the new option to change covenants (factions within the game which reap their own storylines and rewards) via bonfires is also welcome.

The online aspect of the game has also been updated. Players can now link with six other friends online rather than just four.

Adjustments to Password Matchmaking makes it easier for friends to be matched with each other and their weapons and levels will be altered accordingly.

Finally, the banishment of excess healing items means that online battles will no longer go on for excessive amounts of time.

As with everything else, these are all very welcome and perfectly-implemented changes!

Dark Souls: Remastered (Nintendo Switch)£31.99

Dark Souls Remastered for Xbox One - Preorder£27.99

Brought to you by dailystar.co.uk

THE VERDICT - 5/5

The originalDark Souls is known as a true gaming great. The remaster improves on nearly every aspect of the original even if only subtly and therefore will allow both veteran Soulsborne players and a new wave of gamers to fully immerse themselves in the title that kick-started it all.

THE GOOD• The remaster boasts the same setting, gameplay and intense difficulty that made the original so memorable.•Fresh touches to each environment and excellent graphics emphasise the game’s dark, desolate feel.•Runs smoothly no matter how crazy the action.

THE BAD• It really is very, very hard.

Dark Souls Remastered is released for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Windows on May 25, 2018